Old Email Archive

digest 2006-03-15 #001.txt

litsci-l-digest       Wednesday, March 15 2006       Volume 01 : Number
143
In this issue:
Gender and Interaction: Real and Virtual women in a male world
SOB 06 Medicine as Absurdity in Albert Camus's "The Plague"
SUB 06 - Proposed Panel on BIOSEMIOTICS at SLSA New York Nov 06
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Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 16:07:50 -0600
From: Brahnam 
Subject: Gender and Interaction: Real and Virtual women in a male world
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CALL FOR WORKSHOP PAPERS
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"Gender and Interaction: Real and Virtual women in a male
world"
1 day workshop at AVI 2006
====================================================================
Date: 23 May 2006
Location: Venice, Italy
Submission Deadline: 19 March 2006 - Extended deadline
Web-site: http://www.informatics.manchester.ac.uk/~antonella/gender/ 
====================================================================
AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE WORKSHOP
==============================
Gender differences in computer adoption have been investigated since
the
'80s. Back then, research described computers as a male world and
warned
of a serious digital divide attributed to different attitudes towards
mathematics and to sex-role stereotypes. Nowadays, the gap has
decreased
with respect to selected applications (such as the Internet and e-mail)
but women are still severely underrepresented among computer
scientists,
software developers, and video-games players 
As HCI moves towards an experiential vision, the understanding of
gender-related differences assumes greater importance. The metaphor of
computers as social actors and the anthropomorphisation of the
interface
(often embodied by attractive young females) are important triggers of
research on gender and interaction. Sexism, sexual harassment and a
tendency of misreporting sexual identity are well known aspects of
on-line communication which deserve further attention from the design
community. 
Some of the larger questions we aim to address during the workshop are:
* What is the current status of the digital divide in computer adoption
and usage between male and female users?
* How do different interface metaphors (embodied conversational
characters, windows, desktops) affect gender related differences? 
* What is the effect of gender on the perception and usage of
educational software? 
* Does gender affect navigational knowledge and strategies (e.g. in VR
or Web-browsing)? 
* Does gender affect the acquisition of sensory-motor tasks in the use
of multi-modal interfaces?
* Should machines (embodied characters and robots) have gender? How
should 'artificial' gender be designed and how would it affect the
interaction?
* Do sex-role stereotypes apply to embodied characters?
* Does gender affect the way human empathize with embodied characters
and robots?
INTENDED AUDIENCE AND WORKSHOP FORMAT
=====================================
The goal of this workshop is to address the relevance of gender for
interaction design, the sexualisation of embodied conversational agents
and the effect of emotional computing on male and female users.  The
workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers
and practitioners in interaction design, human-computer interaction,
computer mediated communication, intelligent virtual agents, game
design, social psychology, and cultural studies. The program will
feature the presentation of refereed papers followed by interactive
sessions drawn on a number of design scenarios which will be
distributed
prior to the workshop.  A part of the discussion will concentrate on
the
definition of a roadmap for future research. 
SUBMISSIONS AND DISSEMINATION
================================
Prospective participants should send a 2/4 position paper to 
Antonella.de-angeli@manchester.ac.uk 
following the ACM format. Please e-mail your submission in PDF. 
Accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings and will be
posted on the web. According to the quality of the submissions we will
explore alternatives such as a special journal issue or a book
collection. 
IMPORTANT DATES
===============
March : contact co-chair
March : Notification of acceptance
May 23: Workshop
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
===================
Co-Chairs: 
Antonella De Angeli (University of Manchester UK)
Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (UCL, UK)
Programme Committee:
Sheryl Brahnam (Missouri University, US)
Fiorella De Cindio (University of Milano, IT)
Claude Draude (Humboldt University Berlin, DE)
Alan Dix (University of Lancaster, UK)
Kathy Keeling (University of Manchester, UK)
Sri Kurniawan (University of Manchester, UK)
Piero Mussio (University of Milano, IT)
Mihoko Otake (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Catherine Pelachaud (Universite de Paris 8, FR)
Frank Pollick (University of Glasgow, UK)
Massimo Zancanaro (IRST, IT)
Sean Zdenek (Texas Tech University, USA)
CONTACTS
===================
For information, expressions of interest and/or submission contact 
Antonella De Angeli
Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design
School of Informatics - the University of Manchester 
Antonella.de-angeli@manchester.ac.uk 
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http://www.law.duke.edu/sls 
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Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:41:19 -0500
From: "Robert Bonk" 
Subject: SOB 06 Medicine as Absurdity in Albert Camus's "The
Plague"
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Medicine as Absurdity in Albert Camus's "The Plague"
=20
As a social construct, modern medicine perforce reflects =
that society's paradigms and perspective.  But did modern society open a
=
Pandora's Box releasing remedy and risk from medical technology?  Both
=
cared for and cut by this caducean sword, society began to question if
=
its desired 'magic bullet' can offer a panacea for our antiseptic =
institutions.  Such internal conflicts required a new microscope for =
examining this increasing dilemma.  Enter Albert Camus.  Afflicted in =
his youth with tuberculosis and then depression, Camus transitioned from
=
an early journalism career into fiction writing, eventually recognized
=
by the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.  His novel "The
Plague" (first =
published in 1947 in the original French as "La Peste")
examines a =
bubonic-like epidemic in Oran, a soon-to-be quarantined seaside town in
=
Algeria.  Players isolated by sand and sea look in vain to their =
institutions of society-religion, government, medicine-as they struggle
=
to survive this epidemic.  Within this context, Camus's perspective of
=
absurdism-struggle against the conflict arising when trapped between =
contradictory inevitabilities-offers a vantage point into this modern =
society nonetheless powerless to stave off "The Plague."
=20
=20
Keywords:       Absurdism-Albert Camus-Epidemic-Medical =
Literature-Plague
=20
Robert J. Bonk, PhD
Assistant Professor of Professional Writing
Faculty Secretary
Widener University
One University Place
Chester, PA  19013-5792
610-499-4265
robert.j.bonk@widener.edu 
http://www2.widener.edu/~rjb0306/ 
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:42:39 -0000
From: "Dr Wendy Wheeler" 
Subject: SUB 06 - Proposed Panel on BIOSEMIOTICS at SLSA New York Nov
06
20th Annual Conference
Society for Literature, Science and the Arts
EVOLUTION: BIOLOGICAL, CULTURAL, AND COSMIC=20
New York, NY, November 9-12, 2006=20
I am interested in organising a panel on Biosemiotics at the above SLSA
=
Conference. Please read on to see if your research interests might =
'self-organise' (see the SLSA CALL FOR PAPERS at =
www.dactyl.org/SLSA2006/cfp.htm) with this proposed panel.
Biosemiotics -- meaning the semiosis common to all living things (and =
possibly extending into physiosemiotics, or semiosis as
"information" in =
a "universe perfused with signs" - C.S. Peirce) -- developed
out of =
Thomas A. Sebeok's Peircean-influenced semiotics, which also included =
the influences of Jakob von Uexkull and Gregory Bateson, amongst others.
=
Following Sebeok's death, biosemiotics is now most closely associated =
with the American philosopher John Deely, and with the work of =
semioticians, and molecular and ecological biologists, in (mainly) =
Northern Europe: most especially Jesper Hoffmeyer at Copenhagen, and =
Kalevi Kull at the Tartu School in Estonia. Since Sebeok's and =
colleagues' recognition of the importance of general systems theory, =
biosemiotics has drawn increasingly upon work in complexity theory -- =
with the contributions of Lyn Margulis being seen as highly significant
=
here.=20
Semiotics, thus conceived, goes infinitely wider than Saussurean =
semiology, because it holds that semiosis is not confined to verbal =
language alone. Indeed, it holds that human verbal language is not =
primarily about communication, as usually conceived, at all, but is =
about 'world-modelling'. In other words, human verbal language is =
understood as an exaptation of a deeper evolutionary impulse to *know* a
=
shared world (umwelt). (We may wish to extend our idea of what *knowing*
=
means.)
Biosemiotics thus offers itself as the study of the evolution and =
present condition of the complex natural, and then cultural, systems =
through which living things make worlds (umwelten). As a general science
=
of signs, semiotics, and biosemiotics specifically, thus offers itself
=
as a multi-discipline capable of encompassing the disciplinary divisions
=
- -- between science, art and ethics -- brought in, productively, but
also =
at some cost, in the experience of modernity as that has historically =
worked itself through in the cultures of the West.
Keywords: bio/semiotics, complexity, Peirce, Sebeok, Margulis, Deely =
(and all other proper names cited above)
I am the Reader in English (including Cultural Studies) in the =
Department of Humanities, Arts & Languages at London Metropolitan =
University, UK. Anyone who feels they might like to contribute something
=
to the proposed panel should contact me at w.wheeler@londonmet.ac.uk.=20

Dr Wendy Wheeler
Reader in English
Departmental Director of Research
Dept of Humanities, Arts & Languages
London Metropolitan University
North Campus
166-220 Holloway Road
London N7 8DB
UK
(+44) (0)20 7423 0000
w.wheeler@londonmet.ac.uk 
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End of litsci-l-digest V1 #143
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